According to our source at Microsoft, there won’t be a general Xbox Windows Phone release this week. That could be because N.O.V.A. 3 still hasn’t passed certification yet (as Gameloft has informed us) and neither has anything else, or maybe Microsoft just wants Xbox fans focused on the Xbox One this week instead of their phones.

Don’t fret, though! Non-Nokia owners just got two new Xbox Windows Phone titles to choose from: Spy Mouse and Trivial Pursuit. And Nokia owners, boy is this a good week for you…

Nokia and Electronic Arts have just released not one, two, or even three new games. That’s right, FOUR new Nokia exclusives rolled in overnight: Mass Effect: Infiltrator (requires Windows Phone 8), NBA Jam, Real Racing 2, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12. In other words, most of the big games we’ve been looking forward to since EA and Nokia first announced their partnership!

The only bad news: Windows Phone 8 users with 512 MB RAM devices can't play any of these games, while Nokia WP7 users can. Weirdness...

Mass Effect Infiltrator

How fitting that the Mass Effect series, which started life on the Xbox 360 before branching out to other platforms has finally arrived on Windows Phone 8. Infiltrator is a side story to the main trilogy of games. It stars a Cerberus Agent named Randall Ezno (Ezno? I bet he got teased in school) who rebels against his employers when he discovers they’ve been up to no good.

As a companion game, Infiltrator focuses solely on the series’ third-person shooting and combat instead of its RPG elements. You move by swiping your left thumb and look and aim with your right thumb, not unlike twin-stick shooters and even Modern Combat 4. But the aiming and shooting is much easier here than in Gameloft’s FPS games because you can tap enemies to lock onto them and then just aim at specific parts of their bodies to fire – no separate shooting button, thankfully.

Ezno’s health recharges over time, but he’s bound to die if you don’t take cover. Actually attaching to cover can be difficult, though popping out to shoot and jumping to other pieces of cover works better. He also gets various weapons and Biotics (spells/powers) with which to kill anyone who disagrees with him. These weapons and powers, as well as melee abilities and armor can be upgraded with credits earned during gameplay. Like other Nokia exclusives, all four of these games lack the IAPs found in their iOS originals.

As the second Windows Phone 8-exclusive Nokia EA game (also the second $7 one), Infiltrator features fairly detailed 3D graphics and lavish production values. The story and even weapon descriptions in the store are fully voiced, so other than the pure combat focus, this feels just like a real Mass Effect game. Players sometimes get to choose between Paragon (good) and Renegade (bad) actions as well. Each choice can lead to a different ending and Achievement, so make sure you don’t mix and match before you’ve unlocked both endings.

NBA Jam

The classic arcade basketball arrives on Windows Phone in fine form! Instead of 5-on-5, NBA Jam is a 2-on-2 game. This keeps the game much simpler and easier to follow than traditional basketball simulations. The whole thing boasts a fine sense of humor, with digitized player heads atop tiny bodies and the silly, iconic voice samples of announcer Tim Kitzrow. Boomshakalaka, indeed!

Choose from all 30 NBA teams before heading to the court. Each team has several real players to choose from, each with different stats. Not all players start out unlocked; you’ll need to earn Achievements to unlock the rest.

The Windows Phone version offers both virtual and swipe-based controls. I didn’t try swipes, but the virtual controls work like a charm. A virtual stick on the thumb controls running, while three buttons on the right represent shooting/blocking, stealing, and fire (a speed burst). Instead of having to hold two buttons at once to shoot while using fire, you just hit fire and then slide your thumb to the shoot button – a fine solution for touch screen gameplay.

NBA Jam offers three game modes: Play Now (single game), Classic Campaign (a series of matches), and local Wi-Fi multiplayer. Quarters can be set to two, three, or five minutes, so games take 8-20 minutes, depending on player preference. From my brief time so far, it looks like fans of the original arcade game will love playing this version on the go.

Real Racing 2

Windows Phone finally has a simulation-oriented racing game (think more Forza Motorsport than Project Gotham Racing) now that Real Racing 2 (also known as the last good Real Racing game) has arrived. For better or worse, it’s also a Windows Phone 7 game, so the graphics don't come close to matching Asphalt 7's beauty. But this game does provide a full and realistic cockpit view, which actually ends up being a very immersive way to play instead of a hindrance.

At the start of the game, you’ll choose between buying a 2010 Volvo C30 R-Design or 2010 Volkswagen Golf GTI for your first car. Yes, all 30 licensed cars are 2010 or earlier models since that’s when Real Racing 2 originally came out.

From there, you’ll select from a variety of events in Career mode. Events have restrictions on what types of vehicles can enter them, just like Forza. Some events host up to 16 AI racers, while others involve just two or four cars. They pay in either money (used to buy upgrades) or rep. Career contains 50 events and a total of 89 unique races, so Real Racing 2 should provide a lengthy racing experience.

The game offers several control options, including tilt, steering via virtual touch-screen wheel, or steering by touching the sides of the screen. Acceleration can be automatic or manual, while braking remains manually controlled. As with any racing game, I recommend touch-screen controls for their superior accuracy compared to tilt.

Real Racing 2 supports local Wi-Fi multiplayer, although one reader reports that Wi-Fi didn’t work when he tested it with two phones. Let us know your experience in the comments, won’t you?

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12

It might not be FIFA, but the Tiger Woods series is another heavy hitter from EA Sports. Before heading to the links, you can create up to three golfers, choosing their gender, skin color, and style and color of clothing. These are realistic looking custom golfers as opposed to the cartoonish, premade characters found in Gameloft’s Let’s Golf 2. Stat upgrades can then be purchased with in-game funds, giving you control over how your golfer develops.

From there, aspiring golfers can participate in the PGA Tour career mode, which simulates a full year of golfing events based on the in-game calendar. Tiger Challenge mode contains a variety of individual events for players to purchase and participate in, though these must presumably be unlocked first in the PGA Tour. All events cost funds to enter, so you can’t just spend everything on character upgrades.

Tiger Woods 12 brings its own unique aiming system that differs from Let’s Golf 2’s more traditional system. After choosing the spot to aim for, you’ll draw a line down to select the power of your swing and then draw it back up to hit the ball. The straightness of the line determines the accuracy and spin of your shot. It takes a little getting used to, but certainly adds an extra degree of realism compared to just stopping a meter like other golf games.

This one supports local Wi-Fi multiplayer as well, but we’ve had the same report of the mode not working. Can any of you guys test it and report back to us?

Wow 2011 is looking to be a great year for us! I mean only one of those games is from 2010 but it'll do. Oh wait....
Seriously if your going to do dirty ports of old games, show us some respect by making them run on all devices regardless of RAM size. Geez they run perfectly fine on older hardware on other platforms from YEARS ago.

More exclusive games we non Nokia people have to wait for. When I buy a windows phone I don't want to have to base my purchase on exclusives. Its not a game console for Christ sake. I should be able to walk in and buy the phone that I prefer the look and feel of without worrying about that stuff.

Nokia phones are nice but are to thick and bulky for my taste. I'll stick with my sleek 8x and wait for the exclusive bs to stop

The point is that people who want these games and own a Nokia can buy them, while non-Nokia owners see them and wish they had a Nokia. Nokia and EA don't need to give the games away for them to act as an incentive.

I understand that. But maybe not free. I have a question though is there really that many people that shell out 6.99 for a game versus one that is 99 or 1.99? I know for me id love one of these games but I can't see spending that much for something I'm only gonna play for a week or at most two weeks. I personally think they would get more buyers into Nokia if they made the exclusives at least better priced. I do agree that at least Nokia is making a push which is something nothing short of amazing so I can't knock them there. I have a l920 but personally seeing a game priced high wouldn't want me to jump ship from another device brand just to play a game. Again that's just me.

well if apps are made by nokia and they are exlusice that is ok and more then ok its gr8 because every phone should have some apps like nokia is doing, but for games i dont understand and 4 of them, wp8 needs games like this at this times so its bad for wp8, i hope this doesnot continue :(
but i am glad to see nokia rise again :D

Yeah, after freely giving their navigation and music service to the whole platform, they might as well give these exclusives up too, because all the hard work and negotiations that pulled off the deals were at the behest of the other lazy-assed OEMs anyway. Perhaps they could also chuck in the Pureview camera technology too, so that there wouldn't be a single distinguishing reason to get a premium Nokia device.

Get over yourselves. It's like asking Google to force Samsung into making available the extra apps and functionality on their phones.

The truth of the matter is that key titles such as these should be readily available for all Windows Phone 8 users, even those on 512MB RAM. If the limitation has something to do with the way WP utilizes memory, then MS should fix it and align with whatever its competitors are doing. Look, I love WP, the Samsung Focus was my first smartphone and I bought in December 2010, from there I've used the Lumia 710 and the 920. I am speaking from personal investment in MS here (L920, Surface Pro, Office 365 for business, etc), and I can bring out a list of key things MS needs to address in order to push this platform forward, and I daresay, make the most out of the NT kernel. For starters, we shouldn't be leaving our fellow WP users behind!

you want good WP8 games? get a high end WP8 with 1GB RAM and lots of stockage, that's it and stop complaining. Low end devices will get low end games.
I bought the L820 instead of the L620 because I knew that the 620 has very limited hardware configuration.

No main Xbox game this week? Oh well, I've been left high and dry before. But FOUR Nokia exclusives in one week with absolutely nothing coming out for the rest of us?
This is merely an observation and not a complaint, but I'm starting to feel like there's a civil war going on within WP's ecosystem of devices. It's not good that a user can pay up for a great 1gb ram device like the 8x and still get stiff-armed like this because his device doesn't have "Nokia" engraved on the front of it. HTC and Samsung really have to get on the ball... -_-

Nokia is simply offering incentives to buy their brand, because they are dedicated to the OS. Its also evident in their advertising, the other manufacturers... not so much.
No civil war, just dedication vs not.

I downloaded the trial, I like the gameplay but the graphics worries me. This was firmly set to be my first app purchase (No, I'm not a miser, I just never needed to buy an app yet) considering how muc I love RR3 on my roommate's Nexus 7, even though I hate the IAP and would have much rather outright bought the game without a second thought.
I even compared them to the Android versions, the graphics is noticeably wirse IMO. :(

I might buy an android or IOS tablet solely for gaming on the move, but WP is where I'm staying for my phone :)

I love how these people with these bottom lvl phones complain because it doesn't do the same as a phone that's several hundred dollars more, like comparing a $200 Acer laptop versus a $1500 Sony series. Yet y'all want for bigger better games with what memory??????

NBA jam sounds interesting, haven't played an NBA game since NBA Street 2 back in the day ... The soundtrack got me hooked, especially Eric Sermon's react lol .
I will check out later when the exclusivity period expires ...

I bought Mass Effect for my XOOM last July (for 25¢) & I still haven't played it yet lol

They will but it won't sell if most of the people around the globe font have premium devices or ways to pay for them, if u haven't noticed they appeal to the US first usually where NFL, and NBA are kings and is growing worldwide. Overseas games by both leagues is becoming the new norm

The game sells but I wouldn't say fastest growing sport, especially not in the south we play the game cuz its fun we have no clue about actual soccer, the players or teams. NBA and NFL are the big dollars, advertising, the playoffs, the Superbowl is practically a holiday

Regardless in the south has no soccer team its northern states play FIFA the states that play major league soccer fastest growing sport in USA average 30 thousand people each game Seattle sounders 50 thousand people every home game. It takes Time soccer will take the south too its already the world number #1 sport no sport has even half the fans of soccer FIFA can never go wrong facts.

Chelsea vs Manchester united a regular season game has more views on tv and more people in the stadium than your super bowl. Smh football/soccer the #1 sport. Americans make their own sport cool but NFL and baseball put together still can't compare to a game that almost the whole world watch including millions of soccer fans in America....smh

This "soccer is growing fast in the US" is a myth. No one watches attends MLS games, no one sells their merchandise... sports shows (ESPN, etc.) rarely even mention them... Sorry but soccer will never make it in America beyond the immigrant population.

You know Windows Phone are worldwide right? In fact as far as I know they're not even selling all that well in the USA. So it really does not matter how big or small Football is there. Some of you Americans actually LIKE to live up to your stereotypes..

WAS the fastest growing. Its dying down. Not hard to grow fast when you start with almost nothing. It will NEVER surpass NFL or MLB in the U.S....just like the NFL or MLB will never surpass soccer in Europe.

again no support for 512 mb devices....i had a lumia 710 ,then wp 8 came out and i bought a lumia 620.......disappointed in windows phone....probably i will switch to android if nothing changes soon.....

Why should I switch to another Lumia, with such behavior? And the incoming games? New lumia? So stupid answer. If even a 3GS can play this game, why in hell should I switch to another stupid lumia! WP sucks because that. Thats why I am selling this piece of crap and buying Iphone!

What? I sold my lumia. Hell I am happy. No more pain. God, I got a Iphone. I am going to www.imore.com on Mobile Nations. I don't need to stay here anymore. I have Vine and Instagram. I have all the games working nicely on Iphone 4s. No more headache, no more arguing if a game will run on my phone. Not begging for games, apps or developers to made avaliable to my device. God thank you.

If you are rich enough to be able to afford an iPhone (which, unlike Nokia, is Apple's single flagship device released each year), why on earth did you buy the 620 instead of the 920?? The 620 is not a premium device, and Nokia never said it was...and that's why it's cheap budget phone and lacking some features. You certainly should have considered that before you bought it with expectations of playing demanding games on it. The blame for your disappointment is solely on your shoulders. Deal with it and stop complaining.

Hello Firstly I Got a lumia 710, then after 3 weeks ago I bought a lumia 720. 500 dollars a Lumia 720 on my country. A iphone 4s is 600 dollars. And I have to remember you that even a 3GS can handle these games with 256mb ram. My sister have one, and plays nice some games. But I don't care anymore. I sold my lumia 720 to my friend and I got an Iphone 4s. Thank god.

The 3GS might be able to handle some of these games, but to what effect? Have you compared it side-by-side with an iPhone 5 playing the same game and did not notice a difference? There would be a HUGE difference because the iPhone 5 is far better optimized for it. The fact that you can install it on a 3GS doesn't change that. I have a friend who uses an HTC that originally came with Gingerbread now running CM10.1. Sure he could install NFS Most Wanted on it, but the gameplay is horribly laggy and glitchy. That is what happens when you play a newer, demanding game on older hardware.

By the way, notice that your sister's 3GS does not have all the features of iOS6, even though theoretically it should be able to run it? Those are intentional restrictions placed by Apple to frustrate you into buy a newer iPhone. You will surely experience something similar when iOS7 rolls by...your iPhone will lack key features from the OS because they want you to buy the new iPhone. (So when people bitch about WP 7.8's lack of features when it is clear Microsoft (admittedly exasperatingly) changed the kernel of the OS and restarted from scratch, I find it a bit rich.) It still comes back to the same thing - to get the best experience on a phone, you have to go for the latest and greatest...or live with the limitations you have to face instead.

In developing economies like ours(India), buying a 1GB device is financially impossible for most.
Now you can of course say since we cant afford a L920 ,we shouldnt complain about high end games. Thats perfectly understandble but the problem is when we look around and see android phones(selling at prices even cheaper than L620) running these games. Am in no way an android fan, i love my WP device (and am not interested in playing these games) but then i too often see people here making joke of those who cant afford the flagship device.

I agree! In Brazil a lumia 920 costs 1000 dollars! Why should buy this piece of crap if peharps next year games will require 2gb RAM. The truth is wp is bad developed and even a 3gs or a froyo android has better RAM management than this crap

You are insane to say that android has better ram management. Apps can flood your devices ram with no limits essentially which can slow your device down and drain the battery immensley. You aren't being terribly realistic. This is still a relatively new operating system that developers will have to learn in order to maximize memory usage. Can you be happy that some progress is being made? People these days are so ungrateful.

Sorry bro I'm from Jamaica the island I know what you mean if I was still in Jamaica it would be impossible to own a lumia 920. But this is a ride Android didn't become the best overnight stick with windows we are getting there.

I too am a 620 user and i find it ridiculous that games like these are only released for 1GB devices. Sure Mass Effect has 3d environments etc, so it's more demanding, but so was Asphalt 7 which is now available to us. But especially talking about NBA Jam, it's purely retarded they made it only 1GB compatible, especially considering that it was able to play on my old Xperia X8 which is a really cheap and slow android phone with only 176MB of memory(!!!). Sorry for the rant but I don't see any logic in all this.

P.S.: Besides, they simply lose potential customers who just don't want to buy a phone the size of a shoe.

People who can't (or don't want to spend the money) afford a 1gb Windows Phone *for games* (512mb wp is perfect for my parents, for example), should, imo, buy an cheap android instead, that's pretty clear, they don't have much quality control over there, it's pretty anarchic. And coming here "threatening" to leave and go android, is well, there's no other way to put it - childishly pathetic... Just go, close the door on the way out. Ta.

Did you not do your research? It's not Windows Phone issue. If you want to play the newest games you should have purchased a phone with 1GB ram at 32gb storage. If you go cheap you will miss out on features and Apps. It's the same in iOS and Andriod. You can't run everything on a Iphone 3gs or a Galaxy S2 so I don't get why people complain. Do your research and buy the phone that meets your needs not the cheapest one out.

THEY SHOULD FIND A SOLUTION FOR THIS 512 RAM !!
There is currently only 3 WP8 Lumias (820-920-928) with 1 GB Ram , It means that theses games are only for 3 phones in the market --"
Fortunatly I have a Lumia 920 .

Can't agree with you, people who buy cheaper phones can't expect to have the same software, and wouldn't be fair for us, who invested more to not have more advanced games, just not to hurt some peoples feelings. Not meant to be blunt, but it is what it is.

To be fair at least the WP7 compatible games should be able to work on his 512 MB WP8 device, since IIRC the higher end WP7 hardware still had lower RAM than low end WP8 devices, and they work fine on them.

Well I disagree in America where we dominate basketball around the globe, its playoff time and its more popular than soccer here in the us where most of the purchases come from, (carrier billing,debit cards, and now all Nokia released) plus we have had several soccer games already no bball

Soccer will never have the support in the US as it does overseas. It's a low scoring game and most people here in the US do not have the attention span to watch a 1-0 game. I have tried and tried to like and watch soccer and it just bores me to sleep.

How is that out of curiosity? The Lumia 820 has 1GB of RAM and therefore is physically capable of playing these games. Unless you mean that the lack of storage makes it difficult? In which case I see your point and 820 owners who want to game need to be pretty tenacious about their memory management and get all their media on a MicroSD

Yes is the storage. I actually have the 920 also but I've got a 820 in the crib as well. 0 games installed. Only a few essential apps. All media in SD card. Did everything in the forums including shrink storage a few times. SkyDrive auto upload off. Other storage takes up 5GB can't clear no matter what. System takes 2GB. I'm left with a few hundred Mb lol. So 1 major game can't even be installed. I can install doodle jump if I want to.... So I shall be patient....thanks though.

We had the same problems with my sons Lumia 820. Even after using Nokias memory clenaning it would not download these apps. Then somenone here tipped us that we should try to download the app through the website (windowsphone.com).

Yep the thing is like my reply to JayTBennet is that I can probably install 1 game and then I'm done. If I uninstall it will leave behind some memory I cannot clear. Did everything the web suggests. I shall be patient.

I bought RR2 on my android tablet a year ago and it would crash, after 2 months I wasn't even able to re-install. Same with Mass Effect: Infiltrator. Customer Service sucks with EA, never will I buy another EA game, most certainly not for that price!

I'm actually thinking about writing an article around all of this. It's clear that the 512mb RAM is showing more and more problems and is close to the equivalent of 256mb on WP7 (with the difference that all background tasks work). I've just had to submit an update to our app because 512mb devices were not functioning correctly

Please do! I was very excited about the Lumia 521 being available locally, but it's becoming less and less appealing lately because of the RAM limit. First it was just a few games, but Amazing Spiderman, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Modern Combat 4, and now Mass Effect Infiltrator? And that's just the games side of things. Those are kind of make or break for someone like me who regularly has to make hour long commutes on the subway.

How about a game that's multiple years old, ran just fine on my damned Palm Pre with its 256 MB of RAM, runs fine on WP7 devices with 512 MB of RAM, and yet somehow magically requires a full 1 GB of RAM to install under Windows Phone 8?

I can sympathize with the non-gaming related complaints, but you really shouldn't have expected the graphic intensive games to run on your phone. What you SHOULD complain about is WP8 compatible WP7 games that refuse to run on 512 MB WP8 devices.

In a bit of fairness, Windows Phone does seem to suffer from fragmentation AT LEAST twice as bad as that of Android. That was one of the major things people on this side of the aisle threw at Android users, and now Windows Phone is leading the fragmentation race by a mile.